The 1937 Yankees and 1962 Yankees split a wild six game series that went back and forth. The '37 Yankees remained 10 games over .500 at 41-31 while the '62 Yankees stay four games under .500 at 43-47.
Game One was a scoreless tie for eight innings until Mickey Mantle hit a bases-clearing triple with two outs, made possible by a Tony Lazzeri error to give the '62 Yankees a 3-0 lead. The '37 Yankees came back in the 9th with a two run homer by George Selkirk but fell short in the end 3-2. It would not be the last game Selkirk impacted. He went 3-5 with two homeruns and four RBI in Game Two as the '37 Yankees won 9-2. The '62 Yankees trailed 6-3 in Game Three but scored four runs in the seventh, a three-run homer by Tom Tresh followed by a solo shot by Mantle for a come-from-behind 7-6 win. The '37 Yankees won Game Four 9-4 to tie the series, but the '62 Yankees retook the advantage in the series with a 6-3 win in Game Five; Mantle went 2-3 with two homeruns and four RBI. The '37 Yankees earned the split with a final barnburner that featured eight homeruns. Bill Dickey opened the game with a homerun, part of a four run first inning. The '62 Yankees countered with six runs in the 2nd. to take a 6-4 lead. The '37 Yankees followed with four in the 4th to retake the lead 9-7. Moose Skowron blasted a three-run dinger, his second homer of the game, to put the '62 Yankees back in front 10-9. The '37 Yankees provided the final bit of fireworks in the bottom of the 9th as Dickey closed the game with a walk-off three-run blast for a 12-10 win.
Lou Gehrig leads the team in hitting at .333 with 22 homeruns, 59 RBI, 71 runs scored and a 1.177 OPS. Selkirk hit .480 in the series with five homeruns and 11 RBI to raise his overall average to .330 with 17 homeruns and 48 RBI. Joe Dimaggio is hitting .285 with a team leading 25 homeruns and 80 RBI. Lefty Gomez and Red Ruffing have identical 2.26 ERAs; Gomez is 6-3 while Ruffing is 9-2.
Bobby Richardson’s average dropped to .303, still tops on the '62 Yankees. Mantle hit .333 in the series with three homers and eight RBI to raise his average to .279 with 27 homeruns, 63 RBI and a 1.041 OPS. Marshall Bridges picked up three saves to give him 26 for the season; he also blew a save in the final game of the series and picked up his eighth loss. The '62 Yankees will battle the 14-10 1951 Yankees in the next series.